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Post by demikara on Jul 9, 2020 17:11:29 GMT -6
"Of course." Aerilyn agreed. "I'll talk Kim into going along with it and leave shortly after. There's a pilot willing to take us already and I have some stims and the remains." And she was definitely going armed. She didn't think she'd need it, but better safe than sorry. "Give me a week and I'll be gone. Just take care of yourself while I'm gone, please."
At best as she could right now, at least. The entire situation was terrible. She searched her friend's face and frowned. "You look tired. Do I need to go?" She could stay or go, whichever the other preferred.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 9, 2020 17:32:58 GMT -6
"I have nothing to worry about but you," said Drulović, her tone light, though her voice was strained. "I'm fine, really. I'd be happier at home, to be sure, but I don't suppose I'll have the chance anytime soon to sit by a fireplace with a good book and tea." They'd already packed her things and she'd ended the lease. The landlord had even mailed a letter about it. Damn the security deposit. What good was it anyway? "Take care of yourself, please." She looked about like she might prefer to lie curled up on her side, but she hardly moved. "I know you can't leave tonight as much as I'd hoped you would have gone by now, and I hope it's not too much to ask of you, but, perhaps you might stay and sit awhile with me. I've few friends."
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Post by demikara on Jul 9, 2020 17:41:22 GMT -6
"You've got me, and once the trial is over with, I'm sure Ahmad will come see you as soon as possible." She assured the other woman. "I can stay awhile longer. Kim had mentioned you hadn't had many visitors." Which wasn't right, but Aerilyn could almost understand it. It was difficult being friends with Arianne right now, difficult in ways she hadn't though it would be. "I'm glad to stay and spend time with you. I just worry."
And she would sit and stay as long as Arianne wanted her too, though hopefully the other would actually leave for dinner when it was time for that. Aerilyn had no clue, didn't really know how long they were allowed to remain talking here. She had never tested it.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 9, 2020 18:11:08 GMT -6
"I've never much liked being alone," said Drulović, shrugging a little. Not since Lipljan. She was never truly alone here - the counts and the searches and the incessant noise of the intercom meant that she was always surrounded by others. There was no such thing as privacy in a detention facility, and it was part of the point.
They sat together for nearly another hour, the old woman barely moving, before the guard, who'd already walked out and then back into the little cubicle with the plexiglass like walls, began clearing his throat. "Visiting's over," he said. "Time to head out." He jerked his head back toward the main entrace where Aerilyn had had to pass through security to enter.
Drulović seemed momentarily startled. She'd been thinking of holidays with family, Christmases and Passovers. Banquets and backyard cookouts. Honey glazed ham and turkey with gravy and sizzling tilapia. The last time she'd cooked a prize bird, she'd accidentally seared her flesh on the oven getting it out. But at least she'd felt it.
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Post by demikara on Jul 9, 2020 18:19:13 GMT -6
Aerilyn sighed and stood, coming around the table and giving the old woman her allotted hug, reluctant to let go. "I'll be back once I've returned the remains to where they belong." She promised gently. "Stay well until then okay? Eat and rest." There wasn't much more to do here than rest, though the rest couldn't be easy. "I'll call once I'm back, so you know I'm done, though I'm sure you'll manage to know before I'm even back on the planet."
The older woman seemed to know everything after all.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 9, 2020 19:43:16 GMT -6
Drulović accepted the embrace, unable to disguise the wince of pain when the cuffs cut again into the skin. Sometimes they made her bleed. It was fitting, eye for an eye, blood for blood. "I'll see you when you return, Aerilyn." She wanted to return the hug. One day, perhaps. The guard cleared his throat again, and then moved to escort Aerilyn out. By the time the younger woman had left, and another guard had come to retrieve the old woman, it was dusk. Dinner hour had ended and someone would come by with a bagged lunch that she'd be able to eat half of, at best. Well. Hunger was an old familiar friend too, and she would not shy away from its presence. If only she did not have to be at court each day for this goddamn trial. If only her daughters would answer her calls. If only Ed were still alive.
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Post by demikara on Jul 17, 2020 12:32:56 GMT -6
Aerilyn had been reluctant to leave, but still had needed to. They had run out of time after all. Besides, she had a sorcerer to track down and all she had was a general location. That was fine. The next day Aerilyn set out for that sorcerer and stood at the base of the mountain, then closed her eyes. He lived somewhere here. She had used her magic for something similar to this once, but it wasn't a skill she was practiced with. Whereever he was the wind would find him. Man-made structures stuck out against the wind after all.
Eyes closed to help her concentrate, Aerilyn sent a breeze swirling around the mountain, following the dips and curves, fluttering through the trees and searching for the hard angles that were indicative of mankind's presence. Or anything too smooth, that didn't cause dips and eddies in the wind as it brushed by it. It would give her a general idea of where to hike towards at least.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 17, 2020 14:29:41 GMT -6
About fifteen years ago, after all that nasty business with the Aschen Marlene up in that damn waystation, Haroun Kim had stormed into the bureau's headquarters and threatened to quit. He didn't want to come into work anymore, and have to grind his teeth while pretending that Maxine in analysis and Ravi in cyber didn't annoy the ever-loving shit out of him. He'd actually hexed Ravi once, though of course, he denied it during each of the four HR meetings that he'd subsequently been summoned to, hemming and hawing, and gesticulating helplessly, because, well, magic was just so fickle and you couldn't really predict what it would do any given day. Then there was the matter of Gerardo's toad. Yes. Toad.
So once HR finally assured Haroun Kim that he could in fact work from home most of the time, he'd disappeared into the mountains. He liked the mountains. They were cool, refreshing, and quite secluded from other people, which Haroun Kim found enormously relieving. People were stressful and required constant attention. And knowing that Haroun Kim could magic problems away meant that people constantly brought their problems to him, expecting him to intone some incantation and disappear whatever was currently bothering them.
The mountain house looked like a farmstead, kind of, except that it was built into the mountain. There was a near-totally wraparound porch, a bedroom, an office, and a single bathroom. He didn't want or expect visitors. He liked to stretch his legs, but he scoffed at the blueprints for magically enhanced mansions sent along the listservs other mages liked to use for their aggressively show-off schemes. Haroun Kim's place was meant for warm fires at night, alone, or with one carefully chosen gentleman from one of the less sketchy dating sites.
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Post by demikara on Jul 17, 2020 14:34:34 GMT -6
Gotcha. Angles like that didn't occur in nature. Aerilyn began her hike, taking what could generously be call deer paths farther up the mountain until she arrived, some hours later. It was a round about way to get there, but Aerilyn went the direction the wind took her. The house didn't looks particularly large, but it seemed nice at least. Aerilyn came around to the front of the house and knocked on the front door, politely, as if she hadn't just sought a man based solely on him living on a particular mountain with no real guide as to where on the mountain he was at.
There was probably an easier way to get there than what she had taken, but it had worked well enough and she sipped her bottled water and wiped her forehead before knocking again. There was no way he was expecting guests. Even finding this place had been a headache and a half. She was willing to bet he had never had a guest here in his life.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 17, 2020 14:48:43 GMT -6
Contrary to the rational assumption, however, Haroun Kim had had a guest here once, other than the occasional gentleman. The old woman had insisted on seeing the place. She'd brought him cookies. And he had to admit, they'd been tasty.
When he heard the knock right about noon, he almost dropped his glass of wine. It was an excellent merlot too. The old woman was in prison. And he'd made sure to magically confuse his prior gentleman guests to make sure there'd be no messy and annoying drama later too. So ...
Haroun Kim came to the door wearing a bathrobe, shorts, and fuzzy pink slippers, holding his wine in one hand. He stood on the other side of the screen door, staring at Aerilyn. He didn't speak for a moment. Then, remembering why she was there and what she wanted, he shook his head.
"No."
He slammed the inner door shut, shouting, muffled, from the other side of the closed door.
"I'm not going to that goddamned planet!"
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Post by demikara on Jul 17, 2020 15:50:13 GMT -6
"I'm really not giving you much of a choice." Aerilyn called out, cheerful. "Do you know how annoying it was getting here? I had to locate your house based on air currents and turbulence. You don't even have to come on the planet itself." Aerilyn offered. "I can handle that part on my own." Probably, at least. They'd be finding the location from space regardless, so she was hopeful she could handle this on her own. "You just have to get me to the planet."
She considered how to push on him. "I did bring cookies, by the way." As a bribe. "A dozen from the best bakery in Wing City. Let's talk about this some more?" Assuming she could get in at least. She was a strict aeromancer. She could be creative with it, but the only thing she could affect was air. He was a sorcerer which meant he was much more versatile.
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 17, 2020 17:00:59 GMT -6
"It's annoying to get here for a reason," Haroun Kim said, yelling from the other side of the door. "I don't do guests!" He crossed his arms, pacing back and forth, staring at the fine hardwood grain of the floor. He'd installed it himself. Actually installed it. No magic involved, just sweat and his great-grandfather's tools. He'd built the whole damn house, and only actually magicked the place at all when he made the foundation. That was it. The rest was honest work.
But of course the intruder with the impossible, foolish death wish demand had brought cookies. Haroun Kim could already smell their aroma. "Fine." He relented enough to open the inner door. "Leave the cookies. And then you can tell me more, all about how awful and terrible a death you want for us both." He shook his head again, muttering under his breath, "People," in much the same way as most people uttered words like "fucker" and "goddamnit."
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Post by demikara on Jul 25, 2020 9:25:59 GMT -6
Aerilyn stepped in the house, not giving him a chance to stop her, and pulled the cookies out of her backpack, handing them over. "You'll be on the ship, safe from the winds. You won't have to step off it at all." She assured him, cheerful now that she had forced her way in. "I just need your help getting through the field around the planet. It's one small trip, and we'll be taking every precaution possible to make it as short and as safe as possible. Besides, you live on a death planet as is. What's one more?"
Terra had a bit of a reputation, after all, for being an incredibly dangerous place, though it was only in some places that the environment was out to get you year round, at least. "Besides, Arianne isn't relenting in wanting us to go either, and I don't much want to cross her, out of the business or not."
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Post by Ylanne on Jul 25, 2020 9:41:26 GMT -6
Haroun Kim snatched the cookies. He bit into one, carefully, savoring the cinnamon chocolate flavors and also probably testing it for poisons and toxins. "I have a job, in case you haven't noticed, and I can't just disappear to god knows where for days at a time," he complained, though of course he knew he could work from anywhere with satellite access. It was the most beneficial and also irritating aspect of the cybernetics. Always being available, that was. "Besides, how do I know you're actually even coming from the old woman anyways? She hasn't bothered contacting me herself, and trust me, I know she can."
The interior of the house was graced with light and gentle shadows, exposed wood beams high up giving a natural, stately appearance without being overdone. The furniture was rustic and added to a sense of spaciousness in the place, even though it had been built into a mountain. Wood was the dominant element. Some small wall hangings depicted what looked like medieval Persian and Chinese imperial scenes. Pewter bowls set out on the solid wood dining table, too heavy to lift easily without magic, contained what looked like shimmering dust.
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Post by demikara on Jul 26, 2020 20:00:21 GMT -6
"How would I even know who you are without her telling me?" Aerilyn pointed out. "We didn't cross paths when I worked for the bureau and Ahmad doesn't discuss work things or people with me. And you work remotely. This would just be a little bit more remote than normal." She continued. He would be fine. He wouldn't even be missing work, not really, not with how fast the relays were now.
The place was nice enough, she decided. Actually decorated, which was more than what she expected from most men. It wasn't a place she'd consider living in, but she liked her home with Ahmad more than anything else. There was a reason they had chosen it after all. She smiled to him, trying to win him over. "I can always ask her to send you a message, but do you really want her to go to the fuss? Sending messages is a big ordeal now that she's in prison, especially if she's wanting this kept relatively quiet."
They would read any outgoing messages after all.
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